Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-Quickstep) confirmed himself as one of the most exciting riders of the year Saturday at the Tour of California, sprinting away from the expected challengers on the climb to Mt. Baldy and riding into the overall race lead.

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Pre-race favourite Sergio Henao (Team Sky) wasn't able to live up to expectations, finishing 23 seconds down with teammate Ian Boswell. Cannondale-Garmin's Joe Dombrowski and Riccardo Zoidl (Trek Factory Racing) rounding out the top five.

"Today was a short stage and we were going full gas since the beginning," Alaphilippe said. "In the final I was there with the best guys. Henao was attacking, stopping, attacking, stopping. He was relentless.

"At a certain moment at about 4km to go I decided to try to attack and see if I could improve my classification," the 22-year-old Frenchman said. "I went, and Henao didn't respond immediately. When I saw he didn't follow me I thought he was playing with me, and that he would arrive at any second and pass me. But I kept going and going anyway."

Henao kept going all the way to the finish atop Mt. Baldy, which was shrouded in cloud cover and lined with snow. It was an impressive performance that erased any doubts about his ability to ascend alpine climbs at attitude.

"I said before the race that I thought Julian was the wildcard, because obviously he’s young rider and he’s had a really impressive spring classics campaign," Boswell said at the finish. "But we haven’t really seen him climb at altitude on a stage like this. Obviously today he came through."

The most surprising performance, however, came from the rider least expected to finish well on this massive ascent: overnight race leader Peter Sagan.

The Slovakian champion must have given team owner Oleg Tinkov a near heart attack by hanging with the leaders until the final 5km, then keeping Alaphilippe, who started the day 45 seconds behind him, to just a 47 second advantage at the line.

The resulting general classification situation, with Sagan only two seconds behind the QuickStep rider, brings the overall race victory into a matter of time bonuses, and the normal truce of a final stage parade is unlikely to unfold as the rivalry from the two WorldTour teams will now become a true western shootout.

How it unfolded

Attacks flew from the gun, but it was mountains classification contender Daniel Oss (BMC) who formed the day's breakaway early on with Johann Van Zyl (MTN-Qhubeka), Lachlan Morton (Jelly Belly-Maxxis), Gregory Brenes (Jamis-Hagens Berman), Lasse Norman Hansen (Cannondale-Garmin) and Daniele Ratto (UnitedHealthcare), chased for a time by Team SmartStop's Chris Butler. The leaders never gained more than four minutes, and after passing through the day's sprint, the gap began to fall quickly.

Oss secured the both category 2 mountain primes to steal the polka dot jersey from former race leader Toms Skujins (Hincapie Racing), distancing all but Van Zyl on the Glendora Mountain climb with 28km to go.

Although LottoNL-Jumbo forced the pace for Robert Gesink, it was Team Sky which truly took charge for the final 30km of the stage. Led by Danny Pate, the Sky train swept past Van Zyl with 21km to go.

The British team continued setting a steady pace all the way to Mt. Baldy, spitting riders out the back of the peloton all along the way. The steady tempo served to whittle down the contenders, but it also seemed to help Sagan, who didn't have to respond to accelerations.

Henao threw down the first gauntlet with a series of attacks among the main contenders, quickly knocking the lead group down to just himself and Alaphilippe. Dombrowski said he couldn't match Henao's moves.

"I was there, but I didn’t really want to go with Sergio because he’s a punchy type of rider and I’m not," the Cannondale-Garmin leader said. "So those accelerations are really taxing for me. He went early and put in a lot of distance and then really started to pay for it. Being up here at altitude, that’s how it goes sometimes."

Of the two riders left on the front of the race, it soon became apparent that the Frenchman had the better legs.

When Alaphilippe raised his pace with 4km to go, Henao lost contact, and try as he might, he just could not get back on the QuickStep rider's wheel. Eventually his teammate, Boswell, bridged across, but it was too late to reel in Alaphilippe with 1km to go, and the Frenchman pushed all the way to the line, knowing he had 45 seconds to get back on race leader Sagan.

"The last 2km were the hardest of my life," Alaphilippe said. "I gave everything to go the distance, my legs felt like they were exploding. In my mind I was always thinking that Henao could come back. But I was doing my best to stay away. It wasn't until the final 200 meters when I finally understood I had won the stage. I enjoyed the moment, but I kept going 100 percent until the finish line."

But miraculously, Sagan, using the chasers Dombrowski and Zoidl as his carrot, got out of the saddle to sprint up the final 300 metres to line, just 47 seconds later. While Sagan lay slumped over his bike, Alaphilippe celebrated.

"It was a great emotion for me because this is the second victory of my career," Alaphilippe said. "But, what makes me so happy is the way I won. I won a mountain stage in the Tour of California, the first stage race of eight days in my professional career."

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